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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 



REPORT 



PHYSICAL TRAINING 

SUBMITTED TO THE BOARD OF REGENTS, 
JUNE 26, 1888. 



By GEORGE F. E. HARRISON, 

Fir.it Lieutenant Second U. S. Artillery; Professor of Military Seiena and Tacti 
rsity of California. 



SACRAMENTO: 
STATE OFFICE, : : J. D. YOUNG, SUPT. STATE PRINTING. 

i) 1888. ! 






UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 



REPORT 



PHYSICAL TRAINING 

SUBMITTED TO THE BOARD OF REGENTS, 
JUNE 26, 1888. 



V 
By GEORGE F. E. HARRISON, 

First Lieutenant Second U. S. Artillery; Professor of Military Science and Tactics, 

_-- University of California. 

1 



-*~ 



SACRAMENTO: 

STATE OFFICE, : : : J. D. YOUNG, SUPT. STATE PRINTING. 

1888. 



QV3H 



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REPORT ON PHYSICAL TRAINING. 



University of California, ) 
Berkeley, Cal., June 15, 1888. \ 

To the Board of Regents, University of California: 

Gentlemen: In accordance with the resolution adopted at a 
meeting of the Board of Regents, held May 8, 1888, and which 
read: "Resolved, that Lieutenant Harrison, Professor of Military 
Science and Tactics, is hereby invited to report to the Board the 
result of his observations on methods of Physical Culture, in its 
application to students in military and other colleges," I have the 
honor to submit the following: 

Although feeling that this task might have been submitted to 
much more competent hands, I gladly undertake to comply with 
the request of the Board, for the following reasons: 

First. — I am a member of the Standing Committee of the Uni- 
versity on Gymnasium. 

Second. — I was, at the request of the Board of Regents, sent by 
the General Government, before reporting for duty at the Univer- 
sity, to West Point, to investigate the system of gymnastic train- 
ing in use at the United States Military Academy. 

Third. — As the head of the Department of Military Science, I 
am much concerned and interested in what pertains to the physi- 
cal development of the young men of the University. 

Fourth. — The great and manifest need to the student body of 
such course of training. 

I am disposed to think that no demonstration is necessary to 
convince those who have given the subject consideration that a 
course of physical training is not only of the highest importance, 
but is an indispensable adjunct to every well regulated modern 
institution of learning. There is no evading the fact that the 
strain on the mental fibre of the average student, who makes an 
honest endeavor to master the advanced and comprehensive cur- 
ricula of the colleges and universities of the present day, is cal- 
culated to undermine the strongest constitution. 



University of California. 



The remedy is a simple one, and most easy of application. 
The University is already possessed of a commodious and well 
equipped gymnasium. Some new apparatus is needed, and some 
alterations are necessary; these a small outlay would readily 
provide. Although the gymnasium was built ten years ago, but 
little good has come of it to the student body as a whole; the 
reason therefor is simply that the latter have never been taught 
how to draw good from it. A gymnasium is like any other com- 
plicated machine; one must be taught how to use it. It may be 
asked why does not the military department, accomplish all that 
is necessary to develop bodily health and vigor? The answer is, 
that the primary object of a course of military instruction at 
colleges, as conducted under the auspices of the War Department, 
is not to attain this end. Of course, it should and does accom- 
plish a great deal towards the production of a manly and erect 
bodily deportment, but it cannot be expected to produce the 
proper healthful condition of the student class. In the first 
place, the time allotted to it is not sufficient. In the second 
place, the Government in giving to colleges throughout the coun- 
try grants of public lands-the equivalent of munificent money 
endowments-did not contemplate the creation simply of depart- 
ments for the physical training of the young men thereof. What 
the Government had in view was the instruction of the more 
advanced and intelligent students of the land in a course of 
military science and tactics, in the hope of thereby creating a 
spirit of devotion and attachment towards the National Govern- 
ment, together with a general appreciation of and interest in 
military affairs, particularly as regards the national defense; so 
that in the day of the nation's need there would be throughout 
the land a class of men who would not only be imbued with a 
special attachment, but would bring to her aid intelligent, valu- 
able services. If, while accomplishing this object, the Govern- 
ment can contribute anything towards the making of strong, 
healthy men, it finds cause for felicitation; but this is not what 
ii has set out primarily to do. 

, Inly two hours a week arc given to the military department in 
wm ,.|i' to w,„k out its ends. It must be borne in mind that this 
time is not given up entirely to field exercises; on the contrary, 



I 



Report on Physical Training. 



a large proportion of it is devoted to recitations, lectures, etc., 
indoors. Therefore, as a factor in bringing about the proper 
healthful condition of our students, the military department must 
not be regarded as effective, or even approximately so. 

A glance at the average student of the University is sufficient 
to proclaim the necessity of reinforcing or recruiting the body to 
bear the drain that is made upon it. The University must see to 
it that the future is not storing up against her the dreadful accu- 
sation that, in her eagerness to cultivate the mind, she has made 
a wreck of the bodies of the young men of California. Her respon- 
sibility in the premises is most grave. This problem has been 
given in recent years serious consideration by all the foremost col- 
leges in the land. We have but to investigate what has been 
done by them to insure ourselves against mistakes. In a review 
of the college world, our attention will naturally first be drawn 
to Amherst, of which President Eliot, of Harvard, says: " It is to 
Amherst College that the colleges of the country are indebted for 
a demonstration of the proper mode of organizing the department 
of physical training." 

For the following information regarding Amherst, I have drawn 
upon the excellent report of Professor E. M. Hartwell, of Johns 
Hopkins University to the Bureau of Education. 

When the late W. A. Stearns, D.D., was inaugurated as Presi- 
dent of Amherst, in 1854, he devoted a considerable portion of his 
discourse to enforcing the proposition that no course of education 
was complete that did not devote special attention to securing the 
normal development and healthy working of the body. In his 
first report to the Trustees, in 1855, President Stearns said: "No 
one thing has demanded more my anxious attention than the 
health of the students. The waning of the physical energies in the 
midway of the college course is almost the rule rather than the 
exception among us, and cases of complete breaking down are 
painfully numerous." 

A year later he tells the Trustees that the breaking down of the 
health of the student is, in his opinion, wholly unnecessary. In 
his report for 1859 President Stearns again returns to the consid- 
eration of the question of students' health, and says: 



University of California. 



" Time and experience have convinced me of an imperious 
demand in circumstances of an academic life for immediate and 
efficient action on this subject. Many of our students come from 
farms, mechanic shops, and other active occupations, to the hard 
study and sedentary habits of college. Physical exercise is neg- 
lected, the laws of health are violated, the protests and exhorta- 
tions of other friends are unheeded. The once active student 
soon becomes physically indolent, his mental powers become 
dulled, his movements and appearance indicate physical deterio- 
ration. By the time the Junior year is reached many students 
have broken down in health, and every year some lives are sacri- 
ficed. Physical training is not the only means of preventing this 
result, but it is among the most prominent of them. If it could 
be regularly conducted, if a moderate amount of physical exer- 
cise could be secured as a general thing, to every student daily, 
I have a deep conviction, founded on close observation and expe- 
rience, that not only would lives and health be preserved, but ani- 
mation and cheerfulness and a higher order of efficient study and 
intellectual life would be secured. It will be for the consideration 
of this Board whether, for the encouragement of this sort of exer- 
cise, the time has not come when efficient measures should be 
taken for the erection of a gymnasium and the securing of its 
proper appointments." 

These remarks were rendered emphatic by a statement con- 
cerning the death of two seniors who had broken down under col- 
lege life. 

The Trustees concluded that the time for erecting a gymnasium 
had come, and set about raising the money for it. It was unani- 
mously voted by the Trustees to establish a department of phys- 
ical culture in this college, and that the duties df its professor 
shall be: 

(1) To take charge of the gymnasium and give instruction to 
the students in gymnastics. 

(2) To take general oversight of the health of the students, and 
to give such instruction on the subject as may be deemed expedi- 
ent, and under the direction of the Faculty, like all other studies. 

(3) To teach elocution so far as it is connected with physical 
training. 

(4) He shall give lectures from time to time upon hygiene, 
physical culture, and other topics pertaining to the laws of life 
and health, including some general knowledge of anatomy and 
physiology. 

(5) The individual appointed to have charge of this depart- 



Report on Physical Training. 7 

merit shall be a thoroughly educated physician, and like other 
teachers and professors shall be a member of the college Faculty. 
It is distinctly understood that " the health of the students " shall 
at all times be an object of his special watch, care, and counsel. 

At the suggestion of Dr. Nathan Allen, of Lowell, Massachu- 
setts, the well known writer on hygiene and sociology, then, and 
now, one of the Trustees of the college, it was voted to designate 
the head of the newly created department as the Professor of 
Hygiene and Physical Education. Dr. Allen was also mainly 
responsible for the definition of the duties of the professorship, 
as embodied in the vote quoted above. 

The plan of the President and Faculty, alluded to under the 
second head of this vote, was as follows: 

First. — The main object shall not be to secure feats of agility 
and strength, or even powerful muscles, but to keep in good health 
the whole body. 

Second. — That all the students shall be required to attend on its 
exercises for half an hour, designated for the purpose, at least four 
days in the week. 

Third. — The instructor shall assign to each individual such 
exercises as may be best adapted to him, taking special care to 
prevent the ambitious from violent action, and all extremes, en- 
deavoring to work the whole body, and not overwork any part of it. 

Fourth. — That while it may not be expedient to mark the grada- 
tion of attainment, as in the intellectual branches, yet regularity, 
attention, and docility, should be carefully noted, so as to have 
their proper weight in the deportment column of the student's 
general position. 

Fifth. — That some time shall be allowed out of study hours for 
those volunteer exercises, which different men, according to their 
tastes, may elect for recreation, and particularly that the bowling- 
alley be not given up to promiscuous use, but be allotted at regu- 
lar hours to those who wish to make use of them. All these 
volunteer exercises, of whatever kind, to be under the super- 
vision of the gymnasium instructor. 

Sixth. — That the building shall always be closed before dark; 
that no light shall be used in it, and no smoking, or irregularities 
of any kind shall be allowed in it. 

Seventh. — That the instructor ought to be a member of the 
Faculty, and give into it his marks and occasional accounts, and 
receive directions as other officers of the college are accustomed 
to do. 

The department has been administered from the first without 
any material deviation from the plan thus outlined. 



8 University of California. 

The Amherst scheme has been in operation for over twenty-five 
years, and has proved eminently successful. For twenty years a 
most elaborate system of anthropometric al measurements and 
observations has been maintained, and a complete system of sta- 
tistics kept, which show conclusively the efficiency of the work 
done. 

A system of physical instruction based mainly on the sugges- 
tions conveyed in the foregoing resolutions, could not fall far short 
of the accomplishment of all desired ends for the students of the 
University of California. 

My study of the course of gymnasium instruction as pursued at 
the Military Academy has strengthened my conviction of the excel- 
lence of the Amherst system. In their general features the two 
are very similar. 

At West Point the instruction is confined to the fourth class, 
who are required to attend the gymnasium six instead of four 
times a week for thirty-five instead of thirty minutes daily. Of 
course more time is devoted to fencing, bayonet, and broadsword 
exercise than would be required at a college or university. Al- 
though from two to three hours are devoted daily on an average, 
the entire year through, to infantry, cavalry, and artillery drills 
and ceremonies, it was recognized by the authorities that the 
exercise obtained thereby, excellent as far as it went, was not far- 
reaching enough in its results; that there were certain parts and 
muscles of the body that, to be kept in proper working order, re- 
quired exercise of a different kind. Fencing, bayonet, and broad- 
sword exercises have always been required, but it was not until 
within the past four years that the necessity was felt of adopting 
a regular course of gymnastics. 

A skilled trainer and gymnast was selected to take charge of 
the gymnasium and superintend personally all exercises therein. 
Prior to the introduction of this regular course of gymnasium 
instruction it had been thought by the War Department and by 
the authorities of the Military Academy that the varied daily 
exercises, both on horseback and afoot, incident to a military 
training, accomplished every desired end as regarded the physi- 
cal development of the cadets. The results of the past four years' 
course of gymnastic instruction have been most fertile in lessons. 



Report on Physical Training. 



The benefits obtained therefrom have exceeded the most sanguine 
expectations. The improvement noticeable in the classes who 
have been put through the new course, compared with those who 
did not have the benefits of the same, has caused wide comment, 
and has given the new department a position of importance 
second to none of the required courses of the Academy. The 
erect carriage, grace and ease of bearing, agility in the riding- 
hall, increased powers of endurance and capacity for work, both 
mental and physical, have proclaimed in no equivocal terms the 
excellence of the new departure. There are no " Special Courses" 
of gymnasium instruction. There is but the one "Regular 
Course; " this, for the reason that all cadets before admission are 
required to be perfectly sound physically. Candidates that are 
unequal to all or any exactions are rejected at the outset. 

The most admirable feature of the course, wherein it is in per- 
fect accord with that of Amherst, is the absence of any effort to 
create acrobats or gymnasts in the circus sense of the word. The 
work is confined to an honest endeavor to develop bodily health 
and strength. No tumbling, no showy and lofty feats on flying 
rings or bars, no exercises that involve overexertion, strains, or 
risks of any kind. It is a simple, rational, progressive series of 
exercises, each preparing for and leading into the next in order of 
succession, so that every muscle and every joint of the body is 
reached in due order, and acted upon according to its require- 
ments. The West Point gymnasium is not provided with the 
apparatus known as the Sargent apparatus, and consequently the 
prescribed course does not include exercise of that kind. It 
should not, however, be omitted in a course prescribed for an 
institution such as our University. The physical training of a 
body of students who are not selected, who are not required, at 
the outset, to comply with a certain standard, will, of necessity, 
involve departures from any regular fixed course of instruction 
that may be adopted. There will be some students who, on 
account of physical weakness or deformities, will require special 
treatment. For such students special courses of instruction will 
be a necessity. It is for such special requirements that the Sar- 
gent apparatus was originally devised. Exercises with some of 
said apparatus can most profitably be introduced into a regular 



10 University of California. 

coarse for all; on the other hand, its use for students who, because 
of some physical shortcoming, cannot follow the regular course, 
will be indispensable. Therefore, no college gymnasium will be 
properly equipped which is not provided with said apparatus, and 
no course of instruction entirely practicable which does not pro- 
vide for its use. 

The class undergoing instruction at the Military Academy is 
for convenience divided into squads of not more than fifteen. The 
instructor finds that he cannot properly or profitably handle more 
men at a time. Moreover, an interest is maintained which, with 
larger bodies, would be dissipated. There are no long waitings 
for turns which only beget restlessness and impatience. Although 
more than two men are not allowed to go through any movement 
or exercise at a time, one has hardly completed one movement 
before it is time to renew or go through another. In this way, a 
maximum amount of instruction for the time allowed is given to 
each individual. No movement, however trivial, is executed 
except under the eye and direction of the instructor. Thus 
thoroughness of execution and security against accidents and 
strains are obtained. Each squad is marched to and from the 
gymnasium in charge of a leader. Although the men are allowed 
to stand at ease, no loud talking or frivolous behavior is tolerated. 
Gymnasium jackets and shoes must be worn at all exercises. The 
instructor, Herman J. Koehler, thoroughly understands his busi- 
ness, and the success attained is due, in no small measure, to 
his skilled and careful supervision. The last Board of Visitors 
made such a flattering report to Congress of the work done in 
the gymnasium, that Congress, at its last session, appropriated 
$35,000 for a new building and apparatus. 

The course consists simply of instruction, in order, in the fol- 
lowing: 

1. Calisthenics. 5. Parallel bars. 

2. Indian clubs. 6. Foils. 

3. Vaulting horses. 7. Bayonets. 

I. Horizontal bar. 8. Broadswords. 

I will allude in brief to what is being done in the cause of phy- 
sical education by some of the foremost colleges of the country. 



Report en Physical Training. 11 



Princeton. 

In 1884, gymnastics were made obligatory for students in the 

freshman and sophomore classes. Thirty minutes are devoted to 

them, four times weekly, from the first of November to the first of 

April. 

Cornell. 

Sargent gymnastics required for all males needing it, in Di- 
rector's opinion, five times a week for one hour. Light gymnastics 
are required five times a week for one hour for all unexcused 
female students. Although there is a military department in 
charge of an officer of the army, there is a separate and indepen- 
dent department of physical culture. The latter is in charge of 
a physician (Dr. E. Hitchcock, Jr.) who is officially styled Acting 
Professor of Physical Culture and Director of Gymnasium. He is 
aided by a skilled assistant, who superintends the class exercises 
and conducts all practice with the apparatus. 

Dartmouth. 

Gymnastics are required of the Freshman and Sophomore 
classes. The first year, students are required to attend thirty 
minutes, four times a week, for eleven weeks; in the second year, 
twice a week for eleven weeks. 

Harvard. 

At Harvard and Yale it is needless to state that the subject of 
physical training has ever received the widest attention and en- 
couragement. 

At Harvard University, in 1879, was organized a new depart- 
ment of physical training in connection with the Hemenway Gym- 
nasium, in the construction of which $110,000 were expended. 
Dr. D. A. Sargent, a graduate of Bowdoin College in 1875, and of 
the Yale Medical School in 1878, was placed at the head of the 
new department, with title of Assistant Professor of Physical 
Training and Director of the Hemenway Gymnasium. Dr. Sar- 
gent is the inventor of the Sargent system, a system pronounced 



12 University of California. 

by those versed in such matters to be the most comprehensive and 
scientific of any ever presented to the college world. Under his 
intelligent guidance a great work has been accomplished. Presi- 
dent Eliot says: 

" It is agreed on all hands that the increased attention given 
to physical exercise and athletic sports within the past twenty- 
five years has been, on the whole, of great advantage to the Uni- 
versity; that the average physique of the mass of students has 
been sensibly improved, the discipline of the college been made 
easier and more effective, the work of many zealous students been 
done with greater safety, and the ideal student been transformed 
from a stooping, weak, and sickly youth into one well-formed, 
robust, and healthy." 

Yale. 

Yale, strange to say, has given no formal recognition to the sub- 
ject of the physical education of her students. She has left the 
matter entirely in the hands of the latter. Perhaps the Faculty 
recognize the fact that the natural spirit of jealousy and rivalry 
towards Harvard is sufficient to accomplish all desired ends. 
That the result would seem to justify the theory is evidenced by 
the fact that within the last six years there were purchased and 
converted into an athletic field twenty-nine acres of land at a 
cost to the students and their friends of over .$53,000. 

Instances innumerable of colleges and universities could be 
quoted to show how widespread is the interest manifested in recent 
years in this all-important subject. 

Suffice it to say that in the past eight years more money has 
been expended in gymnasia and apparatus in the United States 
than in all preceding years of our history taken together. 

I therefore make bold to suggest the following: 

(1) That a new department of the University be organized, to 
be known at the Department of Physical Culture. 

(2) That there be selected to take charge of this department a 
thoroughly educated physician, who, like the head of any other 
department, shall be a member of the University Faculty. 

(3) That his duties shall be, (1), to take charge of the gymna- 
sium and superintend the instruction of the students in gymnas- 
tics; (2), to give lectures from time to time upon hygiene and 



Report on Physical Training. 13 

other subjects pertaining to the laws of life and health, together 
with a short course of instruction upon anatomy and physiology; 
(3), to give constant care and attention to the health and physical 
well being of the student body. 

(4) That a trained athlete and gymnast be engaged, who shall 
be an assistant to the Professor of Physical Culture, and shall be 
styled Instructor of Gymnastics. He shall personally conduct all 
class exercises and supervise all practice with the apparatus. 

(5) That it is of the utmost importance that great care be given 
to the selection of the latter, in order that a thoroughly competent 
instructor may be secured. His salary should be a respectable 
one, say $125 a month, and he should be provided with a resi- 
dence, free of rent, in the near vicinity of the gymnasium. 

(6) The instructor of gymnastics shall, in addition to his duties 
in the gymnasium, perform the duties of coach to all athletic 
teams of the University. 

(7) That the course of instruction shall be compulsory for the 
Freshman Class during both terms of the Freshman year except- 
ing the months of October and June, and shall consist of thirty 
minutes exercise daily, five times a week. 

(8) That the Freshman Class, for purposes of instruction, shall 
be divided into squads of about fifteen, each squad to report at 
the gymnasium at such designated times during the day as shall 
be found practicable and convenient. 

(9) The course of instruction, subject to such modifications as 
the Professor of Physical Culture and the Instructor of Gymnas- 
tics, under the direction of the Faculty, may deem expedient, 
shall be conducted as follows: 

Every beginner shall be subjected to the series of measurements 
and tests required by the Sargent system ; blank forms for the pur- 
pose shall be kept on hand, and filled out in duplicate — one to be 
handed to the student, and the other to be placed in a book kept 
for the purpose. The measurements and tests shall be repeated 
at the end of the first and second term of the Freshman year. 
These measurements and tests shall always be made under the 
personal supervision of the head of the department. After com- 
paring the results obtained by these measurements and tests, with 
the standard for the average healthy person of the age given, the 



14 University of California. 

examiner makes his prescription for each individual as regards 
diet, exercise, sleep, air, bathing, clothing, etc. These prescrip- 
tions are entered on a card or handbook, and given the student. 
On each book and card shall be stated, likewise, " Regular Course," 
or "Special Course." " Special Courses" are those given to stu- 
dents for whom, on account of specific defects or departure from 
the normal standard, special exercises are deemed advisable. 
The "Special Course" in each case shall be specified. Each 
student, on entering the gymnasium, shall hand his card to the 
instructor, who shall be guided accordingly. 

The "Regular Course" shall consist of exercises as follows: 

Two weeks. — " Setting up," as prescribed in what is specifically 
known as " Exercises " in Upton's Tactics. 

Three weeks. — Calisthenics. 

Three weeks. — Sargent apparatus. 

Three weeks. — Indian clubs. 

Three weeks. — Vaulting horses. 

Three weeks. — Horizontal bar. 

Three weeks. — Parallel bars. 

Four weeks. — Fencing. 

Regular attendance, orderly behavior, and proper attention to 
duty, shall at all times be enforced. 

Gymnasium jackets and shoes — of a pattern to be designated — 
shall be worn at all exercises. 

(10) That some hour or hours be set aside for daily volunteer 
exercises for all classes, such volunteer exercises, of whatever 
kind, to be under the supervision of the gymnasium instructor. 

Such is briefly the scheme that I respectfully offer to your con- 
sideration. There is nothing original or experimental about it; 
it has been tried and tested, and has exceeded in magnificent 
results the most sanguine expectations. 

We have but to look about us to become alive to the necessity 
of recuiting the bodies of our young men to enable them to meet 
the greal demands made upon them. In the natural course of 
my duties as head of the military department, I have had occa- 
sion to closely examine the physique of the student body. I do 
not hesitate to say that it is considerably below what I regard as 



Report on Physical Training. 13 

the proper standard. Although there are many specimens of 
superb bodily development, they constitute a marked minority. 
An observer cannot but be struck by the goodly number of nar- 
row-chested, round-shouldered, pallid-looking students that are 
to be encountered in a glance at the University Battalion. Many 
of the students, sensible of the necessity of bodily exercise, make 
free use of the gymnasium or indulge voluntarily in athletic 
sports on the college campus. These latter are almost invariably 
men of vigorous bodily constitution, who take to exercise because 
it is pleasing to them. They avoid, because of their vigor, an 
inactive sedentary life. Those of the students who need building 
up, who require reenforcing, are the very ones who naturally shun 
the means to such end. Those who naturally incline to seden- 
tary habits are, as a. rule, the very ones who should be made to 
avoid them. In a word, the matter of exercise is one that above 
all others requires to be regulated. It cannot be left to the discre- 
tion of the student body. 

It may be urged that I am giving too much importance to the 
department; that I am organizing it on too extensive a basis when 
I dignify it with a professorship. In importance, the health of the 
student body yields to no consideration whatever; no department 
of the University should take precedence over it. If, by attach- 
ing to it a professorship, I add dignity to the cause of bodily vigor, 
my scheme is worthy of the highest commendation. It may be 
advanced, that the work to be done would not give sufficient occu- 
pation to a physician, and would not, therefore, warrant his em- 
ployment. This objection can alone be based on a failure to 
appreciate the magnitude of the work to be done. In the first 
place, a course of physical training, of its very nature, demands 
that it be directed by a professional physician. A thorough knowl- 
edge of the structure and wants of the human body is indispen- 
sable to its intelligent administration. 

In the second place, there is presented a field of labor that for 
earnest endeavor has almost no limits. Aside from the technical 
work of his department proper, his services may be made invalu- 
able as medical adviser. To appreciate how indispensable to the 
wants of the University are the services of a duly installed physi- 
cian, we have but to contemplate the status of the average student 



16 * University of California. 

after attaching himself to the University for a regular course of 
four years' work. Students come from every section of the State, 
and some from sections without the limits of the State. Their 
new career as students is for most of them a radical change from 
that of their home life. They are thrown on their own resources. 
They take up their abodes where best suits them at or in the 
vicinity of Berkeley. They are removed from all their accus- 
tomed restraints. The watchful eye of anxious parents is no 
longer upon them to guide and direct them. They are free to 
come, go, and do as they please. Is it to be wondered at if their 
new life is marked by many irregularities of food, dress, hours, 
habits, etc., which could not obtain in their condition of life 
before coming to the University? Is it not natural that the care- 
lessness incidental to youth at this age should superinduce many 
ills and ails which, if not attended to, would, in many cases, lead 
to real sickness and disease? Many students, when taken sick, 
are, from pecuniary and other considerations, restrained from 
placing themselves under the care of a physician. Is not this 
the period, of all periods in their life, when mature counsel, kind 
sympathy, and professional advice would be a boon and a bless- 
ing? 

If the records of the University could show the real cause of 
the breaking down and retiring of so many students before the 
completion of their course, it would be discovered that the greater 
number failed not because of mental but because of 'physical defi- 
ciency. This is not a careless statement, but one that I feel as- 
sured would be literally borne out by the facts if they could be 
arrived at. 

It needs no further demonstration to show how fruitful of happy 
results would be the work of a skilled physician who as a mem- 
ber of the Faculty and head of a department would be person- 
ally known to every student, and who would be found daily in his 
office to give advice and assistance to whoever might need it. 

I anticipate the objection that the time of students is already 
wholly occupied with study and recitations, and that it is imprac- 
ticable to make room for gymnasium work. All the more reason 
why room must be made. If such heavy mental strain is placed 
on the student it is high time that such strain be relieved and 



Report on Physical Training. 17 



something in the shape of an offset be interpolated. But half an 
hour a day is. asked for, and it can be demonstrated beyond cavil 
or doubt that the time thus taken and devoted to systematic phy- 
sical exercise will be more than doubly or trebly returned in in- 
creased capacity for work. 

I respectfully but earnestly request the gentlemen of the Board 
of Regents to give serious consideration to this all-important -sub- 
ject. 

As one who is soon to sever his connection with the University, 
I have no thought other than the welfare of the institution I have 
had the honor and pleasure of serving for the past two years. 

The people of California have a right to expect much of their 
University. They have bountifully supplied the wherewithal to 
make it the peer of any college of learning in the country. The 
University will be true to its trust. All it needs^o reach the goal 
is the impulse of a warm place in the hearts of the people. Let 
the good mothers and fathers of California know that their sons 
are being made strong and healthy men as well as wise. Let 
them be assured that they are being equipped physically as well 
as intellectually for the battle of life, and the mission of the Uni- 
versity will soon be accomplished for all time. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

GEO. F. E. HARRISON, 

First Lieutenant Second U. S. Artillery, 
Professor of Military Science, University of California. 



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